A fleeting glimpse
by hiddendaisy1821
Summary: How does one measure life, in strides, in loss, or does it fade with memory...Chuck/Sarah AU


**Summary**: AU How does one measure life, in strides, in loss, or does it fade with a memory...

**Pairing:** Chuck/Sarah

**Disclaimer**: I don't own anything.

**Authors note:** This is an AU Chuck/Sarah fic. It's a one shot for now and it is a bit dark (for Chuck anyway) so be warned…

-CS-

How does one measure life, in strides, in loss, or does it fade with a memory...

Not wanting to lose any more time waiting a man picks up the suitcase beside him and stands up to face the incoming train. No one ever said it would feel like this he thinks as the sound of an incoming train increases a sense of calm that washes over him. It feels like he's finally where he's supposed to be.

Not wanting to tire his already degrading brain, he only catches a glimpse of the life that led him to this inevitable moment. As they say, when something is ending it often makes you think about the beginning. Here was the end of a wealthy man who had everything and yet nothing, reaching this rather unexpected demise and only one thing comes to mind.

Chuck Bartowski wasn't the man who breaks a promise and finally here and now that promise will become the only truth. A promise that made everything possible for him and his notion. Because Charles was above everything a great spy. No, make that a perfect spy.

His eyes start to get heavy, a side effect of getting lost in the past and to avoid it he starts to move toward the tracks. Finally there, he takes his worn suitcase and places it on the edge of the tracks and sits calmly while taking out one tattered cigarette.

Train will be here soon. Any moment now, wait for it all to end. End everything - no more days of endless routine or just a boring mission after mission invariably taking his body and mind over the edge, just a little further, until you don't know on what side you stand anymore.

Lighting the cigarette up and inhaling the little bit of death into his body, as the train crosses over the final meters, the deafening sound almost hurting his ears. Closing his eyes just to savor it. Finally free.

And then the crash follows. Silence and darkness. Finally.

-CS-

Sarah Walker found herself on the platform waiting for the train to take her to Berlin. She felt like crap, tired and the lack of sleep wasn't helping at all. Can this mission drag on any longer? She needed to take a known political figure into hiding after the threats for his life became increasingly real, but as she came to his safe house, he was dead on the floor with a hole between his eyes.

No sign of a break in, or a fight, just a clean execution. Whoever did that was a professional. But not only did that make her trip to Europe fruitless, it also left a stain on her perfect record at the CIA. Just now, when she really hoped to become the head of division, but no this had to happen, just to ruin any chance of her becoming anything more than a puppet at CIA's disposal.

Snapping back to reality, she takes a look around the station. Even her instincts are failing her now, but after making a sweep across the platform she lets herself relax seeing as it's only her and a man on the other side.

The sound of an incoming train could be heard as it drew closer and she prepared herself to grab a small bag she always carried and get on the train. Oddly enough her gaze went to the man, who finally stood up to board the train. He was tall. That's the only thought that went through her mind before she gasped as he calmly places himself on the tracks.

What the hell? Is he trying to kill himself? Well, duh…

Why else does a man sit on the tracks while the train is coming? Should she shout? Yell at him for doing such nonsense. Should she run for it?

So many questions ran through her head, as she saw him light up a cigarette and with a serene smile close his eyes and look up at the sky.

And suddenly she was running, her legs carrying her faster than ever before. She felt frantic, like she was panicking for her own well-being and not for that stranger. Somehow he didn't seem like a stranger. It felt rather like a chance that she couldn't pass. Like it meant something to her if she saved his life. Like it would open up a whole new reality.

The train was almost there. Just a bit more. In that moment, the panic and adrenalin mashed together and she threw herself at him with all her might. A crash into him knocked the wind out of her and as she fell down, everything became more distant to her, the people, the station, as if she was losing conscience. The darkness followed.


End file.
